Coup of 18 Brumaire

The Coup of 18 Brumaire occurred on 9 November 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte led a bloodless military coup against the French Directory in Paris, France and established the French Consulate with himself as its leader. Directory leader Emmanuel Joseph Sieyes became the dominant figure in the Directory after eradicating the Jacobin Club in the 30 Prairial coup of 18 June 1799, and he sought to recruit the successful Napoleon as the leader of a coup that would bring himself to power as a French dictator. Napoleon himself sought to lead a coup, and his brother Lucien Bonaparte had the Directory members move to the Chateau de Saint-Cloud on 9 November 1799 after warning them of an attempted Jacobin coup. Napoleon was given command of all nearby troops and ordered to put down the insurrection, and directors Paul Barras, Sieyes, and Roger Ducos resigned so that a new constitution could be drafted to meet the Jacobins' demands. Directors Louis-Jerome Gohier and Jean-Francois-Auguste Moulin refused to step down, protesting furiously. Napoleon's ally Jean Victor Marie Moreau had the two directors arrested, and he stormed the parliament building with grenadiers. When he was accused of violating the constitution, he accused the Directory of violating the coup on 18 Fructidor, 22 Floreal, and 30 Prairial, when both monarchist and liberal deputies had been ejected from the government. The Council of 500 eventually backed down, and a new constitution was passed, establishing the French Consulate with Napoleon as "First Consul".